With an increase in complaints and a decreasing budget to respond to them, Barnstable's regulatory department is proposing a rental inspection program that would require annual registration and payment of a fee.

The Barnstable Board of Health was presented with the proposal by town staff last month to see whether it was a concept that the board could support. Most of the problems generating complaints are what Tom Geiler, director of regulatory services for the town, characterizes as "quality of life" issues: noise, garbage, parking on lawns or other nuisance activity that can detract from a neighborhood. He also said that most of these kinds of complaints handled through his department are related to rental units. Overcrowding is a consistent problem. To address that, the draft registration process would require an initial inspection to determine how many bedrooms are allowed, which would then be posted.

The board of health is reviewing the proposal as a first pass at whether something like a rental registration program could be approved. Geiler and public health director Tom McKean said they wanted a response from the board of health before bringing the proposal to the town council.

As with any program that would require new staff, Geiler said that identifying a funding source is a basic requirement.

"You can't even propose a solution without identifying a set of resources to address those needs," he said.

In the late '80s, Barnstable Town Meeting authorized the formation of the Group Rental Task Force to develop a plan to bring summer rentals under control. Among that group's recommendations was a registration program for all rentals to create a data base of units and owners, as well as establish a funding source to administer the program.

BIRST, for the Barnstable Inspectional Response Services Team, was the program adopted out of the recommendations of the rental task force. It was effective in identifying problem properties and coordinating a unified response by town agencies.. "It worked like a charm at solving some of the problems," said Geiler. "But it also stirred up a hornets' nest."

He said that pressure was put on the town to "slow things down."

Now only called together when the need arises, BIRST saw an uptick in demand last summer, according to McKean.

The board of health is getting a first crack at the proposal because many of the regulations for rental housing fall under its jurisdiction. Geiler said that the earlier group rental ordinance was adopted through the board of health, so it was a likely place to start the discussion.

McKean said that members of the board expressed some reservations about the proposal based on funding and resource questions. The town's health division has lost a number of full-time employees in the past few years as a result of shrinking budgets.

The registration proposal is not related to the recently-hired illegal apartment enforcement officer, Geiler said. The registration program would be aimed at legally created rentals.

"This isn't an attempt to deal with illegal rentals at all," he said. "The hope here was to hoe where the weeds are."

Geiler said that the hope is to get an answer one way or another in time for this year's budget adoption, traditionally done in May.